New Zealand

Longer, healthier lives as researched by my kiwi friend Gary might be one of the best gifts from New Zealand to add to the good books and movies, delicious food, and a truly unique dance. Gary is both a cardiologist and an epidemiologist. This is one of his more recent reports from work that has been ongoing since 1974: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQxFENhH5VA

I love conversations with Gary and his wife Sharon. When I told Sharon that I was looking for a book to read from New Zealand, she had more than twenty waiting on her table when I arrived. She explained to me why each was important. She’s right that there is so much more to a country than the one or two books I can read on this schedule. I talked her down to letting me borrow five and, I’ll be honest, I have only read one of those, Portrait of the Artist’s Wife by Barbara Anderson. Another good choice is Katherine Mansfield’s story collection The Garden Party on Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1429

I read The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera from the library and I still need to see the movie which is on Kanopy. Another movie on Kanopy comes highly recommended by my brother David and his children. He tells me that they watched Her Majesty, a 2001 movie from New Zealand, weekly for years. His daughter Rileigh tells me I need to hear the cheese song.

Before we talk about the next movie, I want to mention haka, a ceremonial dance performed in many settings including by New Zealand’s rugby team before matches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wya-ZBo8f-0. This is important to understand when watching Boy by Taika Waititi (I watched it on Amazon Prime). The great charisma in the actors and the haka version of Michael Jackson's Thriller at the end made this a particularly enjoyable movie.

Netflix has a good variety of additional New Zealander films including Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Falling Inn Love, Moving Art (episode 2), The Breaker Upperers, The Stolen, and Cousins. Another option for literature is here: https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/dispatches/article/the-city-and-the-writer-in-auckland-new-zealand-with-chloe-honum

My first experience with food from New Zealand came a few years ago when I planned a process improvement event with six teams, each representing a different Pacific island. I looked up the menu from the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii, and the hospital chef recreated it beautifully. Harore kūmara, stewed mushrooms and onion served on multicolored sweet potatoes, represented New Zealand. Here is a recipe: https://www.vegetables.co.nz/recipes/red-gold-and-orange-kumara-roast/

My second great kiwi meal came when I ate with Vonnett at one of five restaurants representing New Zealand in San Diego, Dunedin New Zealand Eats. Vonnett had the lamb burger and I had the chicken pot pie, a flaky puff pastry on the bottom of a skillet with chicken, veggies and a savory bread pudding inside - delicious! We would be thrilled to go back to try Queenstown Public House, Queenstown Bistro, Raglan Public House, and Bare Back Grill, all with the same owner. The restaurants each represent a unique location in New Zealand and they have some items in common and some unique to the setting.

The most recent of my New Zealand food stops came after Robert and I toured UCLA for his college road trip in December. We swung by Ponsonby Road Café, just five miles, but 45 minutes from the campus (blame Friday afternoon traffic). I thought the extra drive was worth it for Robert’s steak pie and my tofu curry pie in a puff pastry crust.

If you want to see some of the original food from New Zealand, Gordon Ramsey Uncharted season 1 episode 2 on DisneyPlus shows the Maori food including abalone, eel, goat, and foraged fresh produce from the forest.

Just a few more options from New Zealand include:

· The Flight of the Conchords, a music comedy group: https://www.wweek.com/music/2016/06/22/why-flight-of-the-conchords-are-the-only-joke-band-that-matters/

· A documentary on the work to accomplish the goal by 2050 to remove rats and other predators that have driven many of their flightless birds into extinction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJE3mFNXYdw

· An explanation of what a Maori meeting house means: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-oceania/oceania-peoples-and-places/polynesia/v/maori-meeting-house

Here are twenty-five more great things to do in New Zealand https://www.thecrazytourist.com/top-25-things-to-do-in-new-zealand/ and yes, I would love to go! I look forward to that time when we can travel broadly again. In the meantime, I’m hoping we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace, health, and safety to flourish in the New Zealand and throughout the world.

Photo credit: Ken Cheung https://unsplash.com/photos/KonWFWUaAuk